Dominick Cruz Opens as Solid Favorite Over Rival Urijah Faber

Dominick Cruz and Urijah Faber will close out their trilogy of fights this July, and the odds for the third fight have just been released.

Cruz defeated Faber last July to hold onto his UFC bantamweight title, and that currently notches them at one win a piece.

Faber bested Cruz in their original match-up in 2007 when he won by guillotine early in the first round.

Now the rivals will square off for a third and final time at UFC 148 in July after they coach this season’s installment of the Ultimate Fighter, which airs on FX Friday nights at 10pm ET.

Oddsmaker Nick Kalikas from BetOnFighting.com has opened the fight with Cruz as the decided favorite coming in at -215 odds, while Faber comes back as the underdog with +165 odds.

The opening line isn’t much of a surprise considering Cruz is a four-time defending champion, and beat Faber just last year by decision.

Still, there’s 12 more weeks to go on the reality show where Faber will surely do his best to get over on Cruz with a bit of mental warfare.

The odds still might shift closer to the fight in July due to Faber’s extreme popularity, and his performance in his last fight against former WEC champion Brian Bowles, where the California Kid made short work of him, finishing the fight in the second round.

Faber and Cruz will continue coaching the show for the next few months before finally settling the score once and for all in the Octagon this July.

Check out what oddsmaker Nick Kalikas along with former UFC fighter Nick Thompson and WMMA fighter Derrick Noble had to say about the match up:

It’s not surprising to me that Cruz is the favorite, but I thought the odds would be a lot closer than that. Realistically, Cruz isn’t going to finish Faber, so he has to out point him. Obviously he did a good job of that in their first fight, but in my opinion, a point fighter’s chances decrease when they fight the same opponent. Faber knows what he’s in for.

Faber, on the other hand, can finish Cruz both by KO and sub. The bottom line is that Cruz will have to do the same exact thing he did the first time to win, but Faber can do many different things.